Oresteia

Aeschylus' Oresteia is on stage at the Teatro di Ostia, directed by Cinzia Maccagnano. The three tragedies that take the name of one of the main protagonists of the story, Orestes, constitute a linked trilogy, in which a single long story is told. In fact, Aeschylus used to stage linked trilogies, and his contemporary playwrights probably did the same. Later this practice was abandoned, so much so that the trilogies of Sophocles and Euripides were already formed by independent tragedies.

The trilogy, formed by the tragedies Agamemnon,The Choephores, Eumenides - followed by the satyr play Proteus, now lost - with which Aeschylus won the Great Dionysia in 458 BC, is the only one of all classical Greek theatre that has survived in its entirety. The three episodes that compose it have their roots in the mythical tradition of archaic Greece: the murder of Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra, the revenge of their son Orestes who kills his mother, the persecution of the matricide by the Erinyes and his final acquittal by the Areopagus tribunal thanks to the favorable vote of Athena.

A strong contrast can be noted between the first two tragedies and the third: in fact, while Agamemnon and The Choephores symbolize the irrationality of the archaic world, the Eumenides represent the rationality of the institutions of the polis, in which Orestes himself takes refuge. In fact, Athena, who represents the Reason, offers him a key to salvation, replacing the tribunal of men with that of the gods of Olympus; but, despite this, Orestes cries because he is burdened by a past that no longer exists, archaic but certain, within which an uncertain reality begins to emerge, for which he is unprepared and over which Reason has lost control. The tragedy at the Teatro del Lido is therefore a journey into the torment of Orestes, absolved by Reason but condemned to a deep unhappiness. The show uses expressionist masks and archaic faces to highlight the crisis between a defined past and an uncertain present, where Reason is no longer a reliable guide.

With Marta Cirello, Raffaele Gangale, Dario Garofalo, Cinzia Maccagnano, Luna Marongiu, Cristina Putignano.

Photo credits: Mario Guerra